Mommy Panic Attack

For anyone who actually reads this, I'm sorry that I don't post regularly. What can I say? I'm a loser. I have a baby, and slow dial-up, and sometimes I just don't make it to the computer during the day. If I do, by the time I check all my e-mail, it's been almost an hour, and I have to move on to something else.

Anyway, for a qick update on E.A. she is pure delight. She's 7 months old, absolutely beautiful, sweet, fun, curious, awesome! She's very active. She can almost sit up, she can almost crawl, and she grabs everything in sight. She loves to go out for walks. She loves people. She's wonderful.

Now to the panic attack. The last several days, Elizabeth has been VERY constipated. She can't go. She strains, and cries in pain, and her face turns red. It's terrible. So several people have told me to try Karo syrup. It works, they say. So against my instincts, I thought I would give it a try. It couldn't hurt, right? Wrong. After I had been putting it in her bottle for a few days, I was searching in my "Super Baby Food" book for information about constipation. The index led me to a paragraph about not giving your baby honey or corn syrup because it can contain botulism spores, which can make your baby very sick, and possibly be fatal. It said that symptoms of botulism are constipation, loss of appetite, and weakness. I knew about honey, but corn syrup? I ran into the kitchen, picked up the Karo syrup, and saw that it was indeed corn syrup. I immediately freaked out. I called her doctor, like 3 times, and finally got her doctor's wife on the phone, who is the office manager. She talked me off the ledge, consulted with her husband the doc, and told me that Elizabeth would be showing signs of paralysis by now if she was suffering from botulism.

Maybe I overreacted, I don't know. I know that tons of people have given their kids Karo Syrup and I've never ever heard of a baby getting that. It's probably extremely rare. But none of that mattered to me then. All I could think of was those words: corn syrup - botulism - fatal. It was horrible.

Now I'm giving her milk of magnesia, and pear juice and prune juice. For the moment, I've taken her off of the solid food she was eating (sweet potatoes, squash, peas), and I'm just nursing her and giving her juice. She was better yesterday. Being a parent is wonderful. But it's scary. Sometimes I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. I just hope that my little one will survive all of my mistakes without too much damage. This experience taught me that I should trust my instincts more, and not just dismiss them. I didn't feel good about the karo syrup, but I ignored my feeling and did it anyway. Next time I'll trust myself more. I hope!